|Publication number||US7726767 B2|
|Application number||US 11/762,460|
|Publication date||Jun 1, 2010|
|Filing date||Jun 13, 2007|
|Priority date||Jun 20, 2006|
|Also published as||US20070291062|
|Publication number||11762460, 762460, US 7726767 B2, US 7726767B2, US-B2-7726767, US7726767 B2, US7726767B2|
|Inventors||Eri Noguchi, Tsuyoshi Shibata, Hiromitsu Yamaguchi, Takashi Ochiai|
|Original Assignee||Canon Kabushiki Kaisha|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (10), Referenced by (2), Classifications (8), Legal Events (2)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing method and an ink jet printing apparatus, more particularly, it relates to an image processing method and ink jet printing apparatus for performing image processing for reducing a joining stripe caused by scans of a printing head in image printing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the need for high speed printing has increased in printing to a print medium by a printing apparatus. In an ink jet printing apparatus for printing by ejecting ink droplets, in order to print one line of dots constituting an image, a multi-pass printing method is employed for printing by making a printing head scan to a line a plurality of times.
The multi-pass printing method has an advantage that high image quality printing can be realized. However, in order to realize high speed printing, it is effective to reduce the number of passes that is the number of scans of a carriage necessary for completion of printing for one line. That is, since a paper conveyance amount per one time becomes small as the number of passes becomes large, the printing speed per one line is decreased. On the other hand, since the paper conveyance amount per one time becomes large as the number of passes becomes small, the printing speed per one line is increased. For example, comparing four-pass printing with two-pass printing, about two times the speed is realized if two-pass printing instead of four-pass printing is performed. Accordingly, as the number of passes becomes small, the number of scans of the carriage required for printing to a predetermined region of a piece of print paper or the like is decreased, and the paper conveyance amount per one time becomes large, and consequently a time required for a predetermined printing is shortened.
In the multi-pass printing method, since printing is performed to a region for one band, which is a band-shaped image region, by multiple scanning, a joining stripe is likely to be caused at a joining part between the bands.
As a method for realizing a high image quality by removing the black joining stripe, a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-036524 is conventionally known that printing is performed per a band by repeating main scans of the printing head, and that print data is subjected to a thinning-out processing corresponding to a print amount of a region in the vicinity of the joining part. More specifically, dots printed on the region in the vicinity of the joining part are counted, and the thinning-out processing is performed corresponding to the counted value.
Additionally, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-025693 (1996), it is disclosed that the joining stripe is reduced in a one-pass printing method for printing to a certain region by making the carriage scan only once. That is, a printing method is disclosed that images to be each printed by scanning are partly overlapped with each other, and complement the overlapped region by a random mask pattern between scanning.
However, the conventional method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-036524, is applicable to the case where the joining stripe is black, but not applicable to the case where the joining stripe is white. The joining stripe is caused by low precision of the paper conveyance, end nozzle dot deflection or the like unique to the printing apparatus in addition to the ink bleed, and the white joining stripe is sometimes caused at the joining part. However, the conventional method cannot solve the above problem. Here, the end nozzle dot deflection indicates a phenomenon that ink droplets landing position by a nozzle arranged on both ends of a plurality of arranged nozzles deviate toward a center axis of the printing head. Regarding the end nozzle dot deflection phenomenon, it is observed that the deflection of the landing position of the ink droplets is large as the duty in each scanning is high, or the size of the ink droplets is small. In particular, when the ink droplets are not more than 2.8 pl, the end nozzle dot deflection becomes large. Accordingly, the end nozzle dot deflection becomes large in the two-pass printing since duty of ink in the two-pass printing is larger than that in the four-pass printing. Thus, the white joining stripe is likely to occur at the joining part between the bands. In particular, a clear white joining stripe can be visually checked on a print medium such as photo-paper on which the ink hardly bleeds, and the image quality is lowered.
Additionally, in the conventional methods disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2002-036524 and 8-025693 (1996), image data for the nozzles is corrected, the nozzles being arranged at both ends of the nozzle arrangement line. In this case, since the ink droplets ejected from the nozzles arranged at both ends are affected by the end nozzle dot deflection, a desired correction is hardly applied to the image data, and the joining stripe is not always reduced. In particular, such precision is insufficient for printed images such as photographs and graphics for which a high quality image is required.
In view of the above problems, the present invention was carried out, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing method and ink jet printing apparatus for reducing a joining stripe and capable of obtaining an excellent printed image in printing an image by repeating a main scanning. More specifically, the present invention aims at providing an image processing method and ink jet printing apparatus for reducing the joining stripe and capable of obtaining an excellent printed image even by a one-pass printing method or multi-pass printing method using a small number of passes.
In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, an image processing method for generating print data for an ink jet printing apparatus which performs printing by making a printing head having a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink scan a print medium, and ejecting an ink droplet from the printing head onto the print medium so that the ink droplet forms into a dot, said method comprising: a step of calculating duty of dots from print data for nozzles corresponding to a predetermined vicinity of a boundary between image print regions adjacent to each other in print data of each of two scans forming the adjacent image print regions; and, a step of correcting print data for nozzles other than the nozzles corresponding to the predetermined vicinity of the boundary in print data in either of the two scans, or scanning other than the two scans, and adding or thinning out a dot, corresponding to the calculated duty of dots.
According to the above constitution, since the dots on the print region are counted so that the image processing is performed for increasing or decreasing image density of the joining part, an excellent printed image having few joining stripes can be constantly obtained even by the one-pass printing method or the multi-pass printing method using the small number of passes.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments (with reference to the attached drawings).
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The ink cartridges 1A to 1C respectively have ink tanks different in each color, and is contained ink of, for example, cyan, magenta and yellow. The carriage 502 includes a connector holder (not shown) for transmitting a driving signal to the printing head. Additionally, the carriage 502 is driven via a motor pulley 505, a driven pulley 506 and a timing belt 507, and reciprocates along a guide shaft 503 by a main scanning motor 504, the guide shaft being provided in a main scanning direction. A print medium 508 such as print paper or a plastic thin plate is supported by a platen (not shown) so as to form a flat print surface relative to the ink ejecting port provided in the printing head, and carried to a position opposite to an ejecting port surface of the printing head by rotation of two sets of carriage rollers.
The reference numeral 705 denotes an operating part constituted by a switch group for receiving instructions inputted from an operator, and includes: a power switch 706; a switch for issuing an instruction of starting printing; a switch 708 for issuing an instruction of starting suction recovery; and the like.
The reference numeral 710 denotes a head driver, and is a driver for driving an ejection heater 711 of a printing head 1 depending on the print data, etc. The head driver 710 has a shift register for making the print data correspond to a position of the ejection heater 711 and aligning the print data, and a latch circuit for latching the print data at a proper timing. Further, the head driver 710 includes: logic circuit elements for running the ejection heater in synchronization with a driving timing signal; a timing setting part for properly setting a driving timing (ejecting timing) for dot formation positioning; and the like.
A sub-heater 712 is provided on the printing head 1. The sub-heater 712 performs temperature adjustment for stabilizing an ejecting property of the ink. The sub-heater 712 may be formed on the ejection heater 711 and a substrate of the printing head, or attached to a printing head body or a printing head cartridge.
The reference numerals 713 and 715 each denotes a motor driver, and drive a main scanning motor 714 and a sub-scanning motor 716 respectively.
The reference symbol 6B indicates a paper conveyance amount, and the paper conveyance amount is equal to the length of a printing head 6C and fixed. The printing head used for the embodiment includes the 512 nozzles at the pitch corresponding to 2400 dpi, and the jet amount is about 1.5 pl. Here, a print width 6D actually printed is shorter than the paper conveyance amount by 20 μm due to the end nozzle dot deflection of the ejecting ports at both ends, and a joining stripe 6E becomes a white stripe having a width of 20 μm. The white stripe corresponds to about two pixels in the pitch corresponding to 2400 dpi.
The print data correction processing region is, for example, four pixels in the sub-scanning direction and all pixels in the main scanning direction, and is in the vicinity of joining part, in n+1-th scanning on the joining part. That is, the correction region in the embodiment corresponds to the four nozzles positioned at the approximate center in the nozzle arrangement line of the printing head, data for four pixels. According to the embodiment, the print data for the nozzles, which are positioned at places other than the ends in the nozzle arrangement line in the printing head for performing scanning, is corrected in the two scans forming the joining parts and another scanning. That is, the print data correction, which is addition or thinning-out of dot data, is performed corresponding to the dot duty of a predetermined vicinity of the joining part. Thus, a proper correction can be performed regardless of the end nozzle dot deflection generated for the end nozzle. It is desirable that the width of the region is larger than that of the maximum joining stripe.
First, the print data of the first scanning and third scanning forming the joining part is received (Step S1).
As shown in
The dot count is performed, and thus a data correction rank is determined based on the print duty by the following method (Step S3). Then, the print data of the second scanning is received (Step S4), and the image processing such as addition or thinning-out of print data of the second scanning is performed based on the correction rank (Step S5). In the image processing, a given count value is referenced whenever the print data is received, and addition or thinning-out of print data is performed when the count value is 1, and is not performed when the count value is 0. The processing is performed by the band (Step S6), and the processing for the next band is started after the processing for the band ends. After the correction to the print data ends, printing is performed.
All pixels are subjected to the above processing in the main scanning direction so that a high quality image having no conspicuous joining stripe can be obtained by the printing method using a small number of passes.
Moreover, although the means for adding or thinning out print data is employed in the embodiment, print density may be increased or decreased by, for example, means for increasing or decreasing the ejection amount of the ink.
Serial scanning type two-pass printing is cited in the first embodiment. However, the present invention is applicable to one-pass printing.
First, print data for the left lines of the first scanning and second scanning is received (Step S11). Next, the dot count is performed in a dot count region regarding the print data for left lines of the first scanning and second scanning.
As shown in
Next, the print data correction rank is determined (Step S3) like the description of the first embodiment, and the print data is corrected in the print data correction region of the right line of the first scanning. The print data for the left line and the print data for the right line are printed with thinning-out patterns different from each other so as to be complementary to each other in the printed image, and the image is printed. The nozzle group 16C is not used in the first scanning, and the nozzle group 16D is not used in the second scanning. For example, when the image shown in
Print data for four pixels corresponding to ink droplets to be ejected from the nozzles Nos. 1012, 1014, 1016 and 1018 of the M right nozzle line is corrected in the first scanning. Next, print data for four pixels corresponding to ink droplets to be ejected from the nozzles Nos. 5, 7, 9 and 11 of the M left nozzle line is corrected in the second scanning.
All pixels are subjected to the above processing in the main scanning direction so that a high quality image having no conspicuous joining stripe can be obtained even in the one-pass printing. Moreover, image printing may be performed with use of the nozzle groups 16C, 16D.
The present invention is applicable to an ink jet printing apparatus provided with an ink ejecting port line having dummy nozzles.
The present invention is applicable to such a printing head. That is, although a stripe is sometimes caused between an image printed with ink ejected from an ink nozzle 20D in the first scanning and an image printed with ink ejected from an ink nozzle 20C, the present invention is applicable to this case.
The present invention has an excellent effect on a printing apparatus provided with a printing head employing a method for changing a state of the ink by the thermal energy and ejecting the ink, the method being especially selected from ink jet printing methods. According to the method, high-density printing and high-precision printing can be realized.
While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-170462, filed Jun. 20, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
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|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US8988429||Sep 10, 2012||Mar 24, 2015||Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.||Apparatus and method for generating depth information|
|US20140292861 *||Mar 21, 2014||Oct 2, 2014||Seiko Epson Corporation||Liquid discharging apparatus and liquid discharging method|
|U.S. Classification||347/19, 347/41, 347/15|
|Cooperative Classification||B41J2/2132, G06K15/107|
|European Classification||G06K15/10B2B, B41J2/21D|
|Jun 13, 2007||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, JAPAN
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:NOGUCHI, ERI;SHIBATA, TSUYOSHI;YAMAGUCHI, HIROMITSU;AND OTHERS;REEL/FRAME:019453/0578;SIGNING DATES FROM 20070604 TO 20070605
Owner name: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA,JAPAN
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:NOGUCHI, ERI;SHIBATA, TSUYOSHI;YAMAGUCHI, HIROMITSU;AND OTHERS;SIGNING DATES FROM 20070604 TO 20070605;REEL/FRAME:019453/0578
|Oct 30, 2013||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4